Black and White Holiday Bark

Believe it or not, I’ve been waiting an entire year to share this recipe with you. Oh, the self-control! I amaze myself.

I made it, like, the day after Christmas last year or something. Don’t ask me why. I think I was thumbing through my Recipes To Try binder (which is enormously overcrowded) and found this. And decided I had to make it NOW.

Even though the holidays were officially over. Your guess is as good as mine as to why I thought hadn’t consumed enough sugar already through the holiday season. Clearly, I felt I needed more.

And this holiday bark was so delightfully simple, I nearly cried that I was going to have to wait a whole year to tell the world about it. Here’s the thing, not only is it easy, but it is so delicious, it kind of leaves you going, “hmmm, what is IN this that makes it so awesome?” Here’s the secret ingredient: rice krispies. Don’t be a doubter! It works.

The dark chocolate is topped with a mixture of white chocolate, rice krispies and dried cranberries and that little bit of texture and crunch from the rice cereal seriously puts these over the top. Then you add the tart sweetness of the cranberries and wow…stellar.

You can’t go wrong with this stuff. It is insanely easy and so crazy delicious, I’m afraid you are going to seriously resent me for taking this long to share it with you. It’s ok, I still love you.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Line an 8X8-inch or 9X9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing the foil to extend over the sides, and set aside. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave all but 2 or 3 tablespoons of the chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir, scraping down the sides. Continue microwaving at 30 second intervals, still at 50% power, until small lumps remain. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Spread the chocolate into the prepared pan and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate using the same method as the dark chocolate, keeping in mind that white chocolate melts at a lower temperature than dark chocolate so take care not to scorch it. When the white chocolate is completely melted, stir in the rice krispies and 1/2 cup of the cranberries until everything is evenly mixed. Spread this mixture over the chilled chocolate mixture in an even layer. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cranberries over the top. Chill for 30 minutes, until the white chocolate layer is set.

Melt the 2 or 3 reserved tablespoons of dark chocolate in the microwave and transfer to a small ziploc bag, making sure to pour it all into one corner of the bag. With the pan of bark right in front of you, snip a tiny corner off the bag where the chocolate is and drizzle it over the top of the bark. Let the bark sit for 10 minutes until the drizzle is set. Remove the bark from the pan by lifting up on the foil. Carefully peel the foil away. Cut the bark into squares with a sharp knife. The bark will keep, well-covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes:

If you are not a dark chocolate lover (I’m crying tears for your soul right now), you can try substituting milk chocolate, but I have not tried it and am guessing it will make the total package much, much sweeter so attempt at your own risk. Also, it’s very important to use bar white chocolate, not white chocolate chips, as the chips can have serious issues when being melted.

Hi Mel, I bought all the ingredients for this except the cranberries because I wasn’t sure if they were dried unsweetened ones or dried sweetened ones (like Craisins). I invested quite a bit in buying 8 Ghiradelli bars to make up 2 pounds of chocolate!!! So I want to make sure I get the right cranberries. Thanks so much. Can’t wait to make this for an upcoming holiday open house next weekend.

HELP!! Not sure what I’ve done wrong, but when I popped the finished bark onto cutting board and started cutting, my white top layer split away from the dark bottom layer! Would microwaving a few seconds meld them together?

Hi Julie – I remember from the comment thread that someone else had this issue, too. I suggested the following:

someone else had that issue too that commented above. I’m not exactly sure but it could be brand of chocolate (some chocolate has more cocoa butter in it which may make it more likely to separate like that) or else you may need to add the white chocolate layer before the dark chocolate has set fully so the layers can meld together.

She commented back and said she “glued” the layers back together with melted chocolate and that worked great.

Love this! I’ve made it twice now. The first time I left it in the fridge too long before cutting it — overnight. I had to use lots of muscles. Today I cut it not long after the drizzle went on and it was much easier. I got my chocolate bars from Aldi’s and they were great!

Hey Christine – someone else had that issue too that commented above. I’m not exactly sure but it could be brand of chocolate (some chocolate has more cocoa butter in it which may make it more likely to separate like that) or else you may need to add the white chocolate layer before the dark chocolate has set fully so the layers can meld together.

I made this yesterday. My husband LOVES it and won’t stop talking about it but my entire dark chocolate layer separated from the white chocolate layer when I cut them into bars!! Why?!! We are piecing them together to eat it but doesn’t make for a very good presentation. What could I have done wrong?

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Hi Sherrie – white chocolate chips (as opposed to the bar form) are notoriously finicky when it comes to melting. I think it has something to do with the amount of cocoa butter and such but I’m not sure. Anyhow, the type of chocolate really matters so use the bar form (I recommend Ghirardelli’s brand).

Amanda_AB – truly, I wish we could all come together on the metric system. I could convert easily. 1 pound is 16 ounces.

Ok, it’s official…this is going to be my homemade food gift this year! I usually make chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, but I am going to shake things up with this bark recipe this year! Thanks for (finally!) sharing this recipe, Mel! 😉

Oh wow! This looks amazing! I will definitely try this recipe. For those that don’t want to use dried cranberries, maybe you can try it with dried cherries. That way you don’t lose the sweet-tart-contrast.